./9rra 



lml-°li 



LC 6201 
.A5 J3 
Copy l 



Review of the Work 



American Society for the Extension of 
University Teaching 



FOR THE FOUR YEARS 



I 89I-I894 



Edmund J. James 

Tresidtnt of the Society 



PHILADELPHIA 
1895 



3! 













To the Board of Directors of the American Society for the Extension 
of University Teaching, Philadelphia. 

Gentlemen : 

One year ago last June I submitted to you my resignation as 
President of the American Society for trie Extension of University 
Teaching. You declined to consider it at that time and I did not feel 
that under the circumstances I could fairly insist upou its acceptance. 

In again submitting my resignation as president of your society, 
to take effect at the end of this academic year, it may not be out of 
place to glance briefly at the work accomplished by our association 
since its organization. 

A little over four years ago, in November, 1890, the first courses 
of University Extension lectures were given under your auspices. 
The work had been planned and inaugurated by my predecessor, Dr. 
William Pepper, to whose foresight in planning and self-sacrificing 
attention to details, the initial success was largely due. The society 
was fortunate, moreover, in having in Mr. George Henderson a 
secretary whose devotion to the cause from its very inception was a 
leading element in the early success of its work. 

You invited me to become president of the society in April, 189J, 
and when I accepted this position, with the consent of the Board of 
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, I found an organization 
which had achieved a remarkable success for the short time in which 
it had been at work. My task was chiefly that of perfecting details 
and giving as far as possible a character of permanence to a move- 
ment, which many feared was only to prove a short-lived outburst of 
enthusiasm. 

The Number of Courses. 

This natural fear has been dissipated by the results. The history 

of your society has been that of slow and steady growth with no sign , 

at present, of any retrograde movement. The following table shows 

the number of lecture courses given under the auspices of your 

society from November, 1890, to December, 1894 : — 

Calendar Number of 

Year. Courses. 

1890 (two months) 7 

1891 . . 87 

1892 105 

1893 in 

1894 135 

It will be seen that each year has marked a steady advance upon 
the preceding, and it is significant that the last year, 1894, not only 
exceeds any preceding year in the absolute number of courses given, 
but also that its percentage of increase over the preceding is the 
highest. This fact becomes of increased importance in forecasting 

3 



the future of this work when you consider the circumstance that the 
year 1894 was one of unusual business depression, during which 
educational and reformatory movements in general suffered severely. 
It is also gratifying to note that the number of lecture courses 
thus far given in 1895 exceeds the number given in the like period of 
any preceding year. 

Summer fleetings. 

In addition to these systematic courses of lectures conducted ac- 
cording to Extension methods, two Summer Meetings have been held, 
at which a large number of courses was given to students from our 
centres, and others who chose to attend. These meetings have not 
only been valuable and helpful in themselves, but they have put new 
life and vigor into the whole Extension work, aiding us materially in 
setting higher standards of continuous and graded study. 

A considerable number of class courses has also been given which 
should not be neglected in any account of the instruction work of the 
society. 

Publications. 

The work of your organization, however, is not by any means to 
be measured by the mere number of lecture or class courses given 
under its auspices. The various publications which you have issued 
have not only aided in your immediate instruction work but have also 
contributed to arouse public interest in University Extension through- 
out the country, and assisted materially in directing this public inter- 
est along fruitful lines. Through them your experience has been made 
available for the benefit of people and communities too far removed 
from the centre of your work to be immediately connected with your 
office. It is not too much to say that University Extension in every 
State of the Union has derived assistance directly or indirectly from 
the efforts of your society. The two National Conferences held in 
Philadelphia and devoted to the discussion of University Extension 
topics, certainly accomplished valuable results for the movement, and 
the report of the first conference, which was subsequently printed, 
has been a useful source of information to all people interested in the 
prosecution of this work in the United States. 

The "University Extension Hand-book," edited by your former 
secretary, Dr. George F. James, and the various issues of your Journal 
and Bulletin, have proved of great assistance to individuals and com- 
munities who are interested in knowing of the best plans by which 
work can be done. 

Geographical Distribution. 

The lecture instruction work starting from Philadelphia and its 
suburbs, has extended to distant localities. The society has made it a 
rule to respond to the actual calls for aid so far as it could do so with 
due regard to the interests of nearer centres. The action and inter- 
action of local and outside centres upon each other has been of 

4 



unmistakable aid to the progress of the cause. Since the society was 
organized one or more centres have been established in forty-five of 
the sixty-seven counties in the State of Pennsylvania, and lecture 
courses have been held under its auspices in no less than eleven other 
States, namely. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, 
Ohio, and Louisiana. Wherever these courses have been given, 
besides accomplishing their immediate educational end, they have 
served to create an interest in the general work of University Exten- 
sion, the effects of which will not soon disappear. 

Attendance. 

The number of people who have come under the direct influence 
of your University Extension work has steadily increased with the 
increase in the number of courses. It has not been possible to obtain 
absolutely accurate statistics as to the attendance of the various lec- 
ture courses, but upon the basis of the evidence which we have in the 
office, it is safe to say that each course of six lectures has been attended 
by at least 150 persons. This will indicate that over 13,000 people 
attended courses given by the society during the year 1891, and that 
this number gradually rose to over 20,000 during the past year. 

Social Classes Reached. 

University Extension is for all classes of people — rich and poor, 
employe and employer, laborer and capitalist, men and women, 
educated and uneducated. It was natural that it should first appeal 
to those who by education and leisure were enabled to appreciate its 
advantages most quickly. These were, as would be expected in such 
a society as ours, the women, and in the first instance, women of 
leisure. 

Year by year the circle has widened and appreciable progress has 
been made in the direction of interesting in the work other classes, 
including teachers, clerks, business men, mechanics and factory opera- 
tives. To reach the last mentioned class must be a slow process at 
best. It can be done only as a result of interesting other classes 
better able financially to assume the initial expense of developing and 
establishing this method of instruction. When it is once firmly es- 
tablished in a community for one class of society, means will be found 
of enlarging its scope and usefulness so as to include all. The friends 
of Extension can certainly not be satisfied with anything less than this. 

Financial Aspects. 

On its financial side the work has steadily tended to become self- 
supporting. It is not believed that University Extension work, any 
more than any other form of high, educational service, can be carried 
on in such a way as to dispense with the contributions of public 

5 



Total Value of 
Guarantee Fund. 


Percentage 
Called for. 


Amount 
Realized. 


• • • • $7,433-oo . . 


• - 95% • • • 


. I7.06l.35 


• • • • 7,575-oo . . 


. . 8o^ : . . . 


6,058.40 


. . . . 6,688.00 . . 


■ ■ 75 # - ■ • 


5,016.00 




. . 70% . . • 


4,662.00 



spirited citizens to aid in its prosecution, but the experience of the 
society has demonstrated the fact that a continually increasing sum, 
both absolutely and relatively, can be obtained from the communities 
themselves in which University Extension is prosecuted, and from the 
people who most immediately profit by its work. 

Guarantee Fund. 

A number of public-spirited citizens of Philadelphia subscribed 
four years ago to a guarantee fund to be drawn upon to pay actual 
deficits existing at the end of the year. The following table shows 
the total value of guarantee fund and the amount called, for each year, 
from 1 89 1 to 1894: 
Years. 

1891 
1892 

1893 
1894 

It will be seen that the percentage called for has steadily declined 
from 95 per cent the first year to 70 per cent the fourth year. As the 
guarantee fund itself, after 1892, decreased at the same time, owing 
to deaths among the guarantors, and to the fact that some subscrip- 
tions were only for one year, the total sum called was still less than 
would appear from the percentage, falling from $7061.35 to $4662 
in 1894. 

This smaller call on the guarantee fund was rendered possible, 
partly by increased economy in the work of the society, and partly 
by special subscriptions, either by the guarantors themselves, for the 
purpose of enabling the society to diminish the call on the guarantee 
fund, or by others who were interested in the work. 

While the call on the guarantee fund was thus being diminished 
the work itself was constantly expanding, as stated above, so that a 
continually larger share of the total burden was being carried by the 
beneficiaries themselves. 

The Work Largely Self=Supporting. 

Thus, during the last year, if we count those expenses of the 
local centres which do not appear on our books, the total cost of the 
work carried on under your auspices exceeded $43,000, while the call 
on the guarantee fund was considerably less than $5000, showing, 
that for every dollar obtained from the guarantee fund, eight more 
were obtained by special subscriptions, membership fees, sale of 
tickets, syllabi, etc. If we add to the $4662— called from the guaran- 
tee fund, the $1551.25 from special subscriptions by guarantors and 
others, that portion of the expenses which had to be raised by sub- 
scription, in the larger sense of the term, will still be only a little 
over $6000, out of a total expense of nearly $44,000, or about 14 per 
cent. If we add to that sum the money received from membership 

6 



fees in the society, for which some return is made to the subscribers, 
and which do not, therefore, really belong under the same head, 
the total income from benevolent sources, in the largest sense, for 
your work for the year 1S94, amounted to $8353, or less than 20 per 
cent of the total expense of the work. 

It is not believed that any educational undertaking of high 
character and not technical or professional can make a better 
financial showing than this. Certainly no properly equipped college 
or university can make nearly so good a showing. More than half 
the expense of many of our leading colleges and universities is 
defrayed from the income of endowments or from special subscrip- 
tions, and in some cases at least 80 per cent of the total expense is 
thus provided for. 

Experience has surely borne out the announcement with which 
you began this work four years ago, "that it would, in all probability, 
be largely self-supporting. ' ' 

Co-operating Institutions. 

In the prosecution of this work the society has been under deep 
obligations to the many professors in our higher schools and colleges 
who have given liberally of their time and effort in order to aid this 
cause. Instructors from upwards of twenty universities and colleges 
have co-operated in one or another of the phases of our under- 
taking. Among these institutions may be mentioned the University 
of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, 
Franklin and Marshall, State College, Bucknell, Lehigh, Cornell, 
Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, 
Yale, Smith, Amherst, Wesleyan, Iowa and Wisconsin. To the co- 
operation of these men, and to their interest in, and devotion to, this 
work, we owe largely the successful outcome of our endeavors. 

Similar Work Elsewhere. 

You have, moreover, good reason to congratulate yourselves that 
whereas four years ago your society stood almost alone in this field, 
it now receives aid and comfort from the experience and efforts 
of many other centres ; such as Brown University, the University 
of the State of New York, and many Western universities, especially 
the University of Chicago, which has given other universities an ex- 
ample they may well emulate. These centres were encouraged and 
stimulated to activity by our example, and by their success have 
encouraged and stimulated us to new efforts. 

Future of the Work. 

I had a warm belief in University Extension when I entered the 
work four years ago, and the experience gained in its prosecution has 
left me with a still firmer belief in its importance and feasibility. I 
congratulate you upon the results which you have already accom- 
plished and still more, on the great opportunity which lies before 

7 



029 928 725 

3'ou. University Extension is, I believe, destined to prove one oi 
the greatest educational movements of the last quarter of this century. 
I consider it a high privilege to have been identified with its begin- 
nings in the United States, and I sincerely regret that the pressure of 
other work which has the first claim on my attention does not permit 
me to continue my connection with it. 

I lay down my office, which has been a delightful though an ex- 
ceedingly onerous one, with the less reluctance because I feel that the 
administrative organization of your work is efficient for its purpose. 
You have in your present secretary, Dr. Edward T. Devine, a man 
whose personal character, whose educational experience and insight 
and whose absolute devotion ,to the cause of University Extension 
make him thoroughly worthy of your confidence in every respect. 

I cannot pass over in this place without mention, the service of 
your staff lecturers to this cause, and especially that of Mr. Henry 
W. Rolfe, whose devotion to University Extension has been shown by 
his return to work after a long illness resulting from injuries received 
while engaged in lecturing for your society; as also those of Mr. 
Lyman P. Powell, who for two years has given us the best service of 
which he was capable. They entered the field when it took courage 
and faith to identify one's self with our undertaking, and we owe 
much to their unselfish and unwearied efforts to improve the educa- 
tional character of our work. 

Nor can I leave unmentioned the distinguished services rendered 
us by the representatives of the Oxford and Cambridge movements in 
England. The names of Roberts, Horseburgh, Sadler, McKinder, 
Collins, and especially of Moulton and Shaw, are sufficient to indicate 
our great debt of obligation. Without their aid we could hardly have 
accomplished our present results. 

I desire to thank you, gentlemen, for the uniform courtesy and 
kindness which I have experienced from you throughout our inter- 
course. You have in your office force, in the small body of your staff 
lecturers, and in the many self-sacrificing instructors and professors 
of our colleges a body of coadjutors whose efforts combined with your 
own, cannot but carry University Extension to new triumphs and a 
wider usefulness. 



Philadelphia, May i, 1895. 



Edmund J. James. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 928 725 7 



